2009 Volkswagen Tiguan Pricing and Specs

It’s really not good enough, is it: A modern car should go well beyond the 100,000km mark before the cost of repairs required are higher than the value of the vehicle itself. However, before making a decision either way, I’d be getting a second opinion, because either your dealership has no idea what it’s talking about, or it’s making an attempt to shake you down. So go back to them and tell them – just for starters – that your engine has a timing belt and not a timing chain.

Based on that alone, I’d be dubious about any diagnosis made by a workshop that doesn’t know this rather simple fact about the engine in your car. A second opinion might put the situation into an entirely different light financially speaking, too. Try a workshop that isn’t a Volkswagen dealer and start from scratch. I’d also be talking to VW Australia customer service department, because that degree of work on a vehicle with just 96,000km showing is a scandal.

The automatic transmission in the 2009 model was a conventional one, not the DSG that proved so troublesome after it was introduced in 2011, so there’s no cause for concern there. There was a recall in 2012 related to an injection pipe on diesel engines that could crack with the possibility of a diesel fuel leak and engine fire.

Before they fitted the parts, particularly when they're expensive ones like the diff, they should have sought your approval to proceed. If they have, and you have agreed to fit the parts, you are liable to pay for them, even though they might not have fixed the problem. If they haven't got your permission to go ahead then you have grounds for refusing to pay for the parts. If they refuse to spend any more time on your car, or can't resolve the problem, you're really left with no alternative but to seek another repairer who would seek to solve it.